


Don't Ask, Don't Tell

by allofthefandoms



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, History, M/M, Military, brief mention of a suicide attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 14:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/812782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allofthefandoms/pseuds/allofthefandoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re not really subtle,” Nick said wryly.</p>
<p>“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Phil replied.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Ask, Don't Tell

**Author's Note:**

> A little something for SHIELD Daddies Day on Tumblr. Yes, I know I am 20 minutes late...
> 
> This is also part of a bigger work that is slowly being written, but this stands on it's own ok.

Phil knew better than to stare. His whole life had been about hiding where his interests lay. The army was no different. But he was beautiful, Phil couldn’t deny it. Nick was one of Phil’s close friends, both of them going through basic training together. He was a good 3 years older than Phil, and they had first met when Nick had pulled two older recruits off of Phil behind the mess hall.

“You’re a little small for the army,” he had said, helping a bloodied Phil to his feet and handing him a wad of toilet paper for his bloody nose.

“It’s my ticket out,” Phil had replied, dabbing at the blood on his face. “I’m not going to waste it.” Nick had smiled a fierce and slightly angry smile, and the two of them were regularly in each other’s company for the rest of basic.

Combat had added layers of sinew and muscle to Nick’s frame, and Phil had to fight not to watch as he stripped off his shirt in the hot sun. They had finished a mission and were back at base, enjoying a little down time. Phil’s squad had gone to the river, and many folks were swimming, including Nick. 

It was nothing short of torment.

Water trickled off the rolling planes of the muscles in Nick’s back, and the thought of trailing his tongue along the tracks of the drops left Phil shifting as he fought an erection. The sun glinted off his rich brown skin as he moved, making his skin the color of warm chocolate. It sat over his frame like velvet over steel, and Phil knew just what that body was capable of, having seen him move a vehicle off a trapped soldier on his own. Phil had to look away when he thought about what it would be like to have that strength turned on him in the bedroom.

“You coming in, Cheese?” Phil rolled his eyes at the nickname. Someone had cracked a joke at his rural Wisconsin heritage, and it had stuck. 

“Nah,” he said, shaking his head. If he stripped down, everyone would notice his…problem.

~ ~ ~

“21, huh? Shame it has to be in the desert of the ass end of nowhere,” Nick said, passing Phil his 4th beer. It wasn’t much as far as a party was concerned, but the whole squad was there and Phil wasn’t paying for drinks. In the grand scheme of things, it could be much worse.

“I’ve had worse birthdays,” Phil said, his smile a little shaky as he thought about the night he turned 17 and tried to kill himself. “I mean, what else do you need besides good friends and cold beer?”

“Well, it doesn’t sound half bad when you put it that way,” Phil’s friend Arthur said with a smirk, sprawling on the ground with his own beer sweating in the muggy night. The rest of the unit was sprawled in various states of drunkenness and nudity around the tree Nick had gathered them at.

One by one, the rest of the squad, mostly casual acquaintances (or at least as casual as you could be when they held your life in their hands on a regular basis) began to peel away, drifting back to the slightly air conditioned barracks. Soon it was just Phil and Nick and the stars. Alone, Phil didn’t avert his gaze, drinking in the way the moonlight played across Nick’s face. This sort of openness was uncommon, hidden behind the bravado and adrenalin of what they did for a living and just watching made Phil’s heart twist uncomfortably.

Nick looked at him and smiled a heartbreakingly tender smile at Phil.

“You’re not really subtle,” he said wryly.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Phil replied.

Nick scooted closer, just watching Phil for a long moment. The stars made his eyes seem endless and deep, the moon catching the flecks of gold around his irises. When Nick finally leaned over to kiss him, it wasn’t the fireworks and electricity that Phil’s old erotica books promised. It was something altogether sweeter, like molasses, or being caught in a summer rain shower.

“Happy birthday, kid,” Nick murmured as he pulled away. “Here’s to many more.”


End file.
